


superman's got nothing on me

by pettigrace



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Actors, Fashion Designer Kurt, Gen, M/M, Sebastian Smythe is Barry Allen | The Flash, Sound Effects, but not in the way you think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-28 14:10:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6332260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pettigrace/pseuds/pettigrace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blaine Anderson can’t believe his luck when his YouTube channel grants him access to working on the set of The Flash. Arriving in Canada, he learns that not everything is the same as it seems and that actors are not the same as their characters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	superman's got nothing on me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lalalenii](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lalalenii/gifts).



> Written as a birthday present for Leni!! This turned out much longer than planned. I hope you like it!!!!!
> 
> Thanks to Clou for suffering through me updating her at all times. **No** thanks at the official Looking account for not answering my questions.
> 
>  
> 
> I have no idea how life on set works so I apologize for any mistakes.

Blaine looks around in awe as he walks around the set, eagerly listening to what the crew’s boss tells them about plans, methods and history of filming in Vancouver. He’s hanging onto every single word, never having thought he’d be on set, not even as a visitor and especially not as a crew member.

And then not just for any show but for the most anticipated TV event of 2014.

If you’d told Blaine a year ago that he’d get to work for _The Flash_ just after graduating from High School, he would’ve burst into a laughing fit. Not that he didn’t have the confidence – the comments on his YouTube account confirmed that he must have _some_ talent – but it’s basically been his dream for years to have something to do with DC – ever since his brother introduced him to the awesomeness that is Dick Grayson ten years ago.

They haven’t met any of the actors just yet – they’d only arrive tomorrow after the crew has settled in and prepared things. Of course, it makes sense but Blaine can’t help but already feel nervous about seeing the people he’s appreciated for so long.

Sebastian Smythe first has appeared as Barry Allen on _Arrow_ almost a year ago – enough time for Blaine to find out that he hasn’t had any television experience before (but, as he learnt, he’s been in glee club just like him) but that this was his first real role – Blaine had really been astonished at that, after all it’s not just _any_ role.

He’s also seen a few of the other cast members before as well – Cisco and Caitlin have appeared on _Arrow_ earlier this year and he’d bring shame over himself if he didn’t know Jesse L Martin.

To think he’ll work along such impressive people makes him feel more anxious than he’s ever been – which is saying a lot since he’s been the lead singer of his glee club, the Warblers.

For a short moment he finds himself wondering if Cooper ever feels like that, when you listen to him he must experience situations like this almost on a daily basis, if he’s ever both happy and scared to have the possibility to experience something like this. Probably not, because Cooper is Cooper and that means he doesn’t think a lot, he just launches himself into the action and think _he_ is the one everyone is amazed with. It’s kind of endearing to live with him sometimes.

But now they’re both out in the world, thousands of miles between them with Cooper being in California and him in Vancouver, and there’s nothing to compare him to his older brother any more – they’re not even working the same thing, thank god. Nobody would think of comparing him to some actor when he’s just a guy behind the scenes. He’s very okay with that.

“We don’t want to tell you who to hang out with and whom not, of course, but it would be best if you got along with the people you’ll work close with.”, the guy who led them around says and the way he rubs his hands makes Blaine notice he’s daydreamt throughout half the tour after all. Great job.

He watches as everyone huddles into different groups and tries to figure out where he should go when he hears a girl speak up right next to him.

“We’re supposed to go with the people in the same department. You know costumers to costumers, camera to camera…”, he turns to see a short Asian woman next to him, giving him a tiny smile. “You looked kinda zoned out earlier, so I figured you may need directions. Especially with that look on your face.”

“Oh, uh… Yeah, thanks.”, Blaine answers and returns the smile. “Uh, where’s Sound supposed to go?”

“Over there.”, she points over to the group on their left. “Cable puller?”

“Guess so. I was actually hired as an all-rounder but I was told to stay with the sound in the beginning.”, Blaine tells her. “What about you?”

“Ah, you’re new to the business? I’m one of the propmasters. We’re actually gonna have two, if they stay with the crew from the pilot. We shot that one in spring already.”

“I’m Blaine, by the way.”, he says quickly, thinking that if she has been here since day one he should probably make a good impression. He’s quite confused actually; she doesn’t look any older than him. Then again, most of the people during the tour didn’t look very old. It might just be the magic of film making.

“Tina.”, she grins and shakes his extended hand. “Okay, we should head to our groups before Marc gets pissed. See you around!”

“Bye!”, he calls after her as she hurries to the other side of the free area they’re standing on.

 

-

 

When Blaine arrives on set for breakfast the next morning, he realizes it’s not much different from he’d imagined it to be when the guys showing them around said they’d all meet in the morning to eat together. It’s basically one big buffet like Blaine had figured, only giving the most basic things. There’s only two kinds of bread, a few jars of jam, bacon, cheese and two or three different kinds of cereal. He never eats much for breakfast anyways but still he’d probably need some time to get used to how different it is from the full table he got served at home.

He decides to go with a bowl of cereal. That’s exactly what he’d have taken at home, too. He doesn’t need to turn over his entire life right on the first day.

There are different tables spread over the area that was empty just yesterday evening, only around the corner from the cast’s trailers, and none of them are empty. He’s glad when he spots the woman he’s met yesterday – and an empty seat next to her.

“Hey, Tina?”, he says carefully as he steps up to her. “Can I sit here?”

She turns, giving him a smile. “Sure! That was halfway meant for you anyway, in case you didn’t want to sit with the people you’ll have to see the whole day.”

Though _that_ certainly wouldn’t have been his biggest problem – more that he was kinda run over and doesn’t really know how to approach his co-workers who seem to be a real group already -, he smiles at her. “That’s really nice, thank you.”

“Hey, I know you! Blaine, right?”, the man across from him says when he sits down. When Blaine nods, he adds, “Saw you yesterday at the introduction. I’m Sam, one of the boom operators.”

Now that he’s said that, Blaine actually recognizes him. Hard to forget about those thick lips, anyway. “Nice to meet you. Again.”

“This is Artie, he works for the cam.”, Tina tells him with a nod to a guy in a wheelchair seated next to Sam. “And the lady at the far end who won’t look up from her phone is Santana. Make-up.”

“May I remind you who crashed into a well because _they_ were texting while walking? You’re one to talk, China Doll.”, the woman says without looking up. Blaine can’t even see her face behind the veil of dark hair.

The boys start chuckling at that, apparently familiar with the memory.

“If people had stopped ordering me around, I would’ve been able to pay attention!”, Tina pouts.

“Well, at least now you can call that YouTube guy they hired if you need help.”, Artie says.

“Yeah, he’s an all-rounder after all, isn’t he?”, Sam adds.

Tina turns to Blaine at that. “Didn’t you say you’re an all-rounder?”

“ _You’re_ that guy?”, Sam asks.

Blaine swallows. The others will probably think he has no idea what he’s doing when he tells them that _yes_ , he is that guy who got hired because a few people liked his videos. They’re no amateurs after all, in contrast to him. They’ve really worked for their job and he’s just made stupid videos with his friends. But how many all-rounders are there on set? Probably not many, so lying is no option.

“Uh… yeah,” he says slowly.

“Woah,” is all Sam makes at that. Blaine can’t even tell if that’s good or bad.

“Can you give me your username? I’ve been wanting to watch your stuff since they said they hired a YouTube-artist.”, Artie says.

Sam nods at him. “Yeah, that must be pretty good, huh?”

“It’s nothing,” Blaine tells them, feeling warmth creep up his cheeks. He’s not sure if he’d like to have experts criticise the things he’s produced.

“Oh, come on, bro! Steph doesn’t go around and hire people who don’t know anything.”, Sam claims and gives him what must be his version of “puppy eyes”.

Blaine sighs. He’s only known Sam for a few minutes by now but he can already guess he’s one of the persistent kind. If he didn’t tell him now, he’d probably be bugged by him all day every day. “Okay, fine—“

He’s interrupted by a loud voice suddenly speaking up. “For the twentieth time, I will not change it! This isn’t supposed to show _you_ \--!”

Blaine turns around to see a tall man stand in front of the buffet table, one hand holding a phone up to his ear as he prepares something to eat with the other. Obviously, Blaine can’t see his face but from the way he’s dressed – a long-arm shirt that hugs his body perfectly paired with some skinny jeans in a colour combination you wouldn’t even dare to think of – and holds his body, he can tell this guy must be attractive.

“Listen, _I’m_ the expert here, alright? I know what fits to the character and as long as you don’t get a rash from the clothes, you’re going to wear them.”, the man continues, voice still loud and full of annoyance. “No--! This discussion is over!”

He doesn’t put away his phone, though, but keeps it to his ear even as he takes his sandwich and hurries away from the tables.

“Poor Kurt.”, Tina sighs. “Can’t even have breakfast without drama.”

“Well, if he can’t live with it, he could’ve quit before filming started.”, Artie shrugs. “He’s already known what he’s like, after all.”

“Who was that?”, Blaine asks.

“Kurt Hummel.”, Sam says in between two bites of his sandwich. “Barry’s costumes.”

“Barry’s costumes? So he was fighting with--?”

“Sebastian.”, Tina nods. “Better get used to it, they never stop. I think Kurt would’ve smacked him in the face already if that didn’t mean more work for the make-up.”

“He’s worked with him since _Arrow_.”, Sam adds. “Rumour has it they’ve known each other before already. Doesn’t mean they can stand each other, though.”

Blaine figures they must be exaggerating things. Of course, co-workers don’t always agree with each other but it can’t be as bad as they make it sound, can it? If it were, this show would probably be doomed.

“However, Kurt’s nice. I’ve talked to him sometimes during the pilot and he’s cool to be around.”, Tina tells him. “You just couldn’t criticise his outfit choices.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”, Blaine promises although he knows there’s no need. From what he’s seen on _Arrow_ , this Kurt surely knows how to dress people. Barry had looked nerdy but yet not hideous. Kind of attractive. “So you’re saying Sebastian is the problem?”

Tina shrugs. “Appears so. I’ve barely spoken to him, though.”

“Hm,” Blaine makes and directs his attention to his own food at last. He knows that actors and characters aren’t the same but is it possible that someone can pay a role so unlike himself so well? He’s kind of expected Sebastian Smythe to be at least a tiny bit like Barry.

He fights the urge to shake his head at himself at that thought. He shouldn’t be worried about what the actor is like, seeing as he most likely won’t have anything to do with him anyways. He’s here to work and not to meet famous people.

He concentrates on listening to what the people around him are talking about and finishes his breakfast. He learns that Sam has worked for a family drama before which “is pretty damn lame for a boom operator, I tell ya” and that Artie’s career has already started in High School when he’s been asked to produce a Christmas special for local TV.

Santana doesn’t talk except for some negative comments. Blaine’s not sure if he’ll like her.

“So Blaine, you finished?”, Sam asks when he puts down his cup of coffee. “Time to work.”

Blaine nods and gets up. Sam leads the way to the first scene’s set and nudges his side when his mouth falls open at _how huge_ and _not real at all_ everything looks.

“Welcome to your first day on set, bro.”

 

-

 

Working on set is lots of fun. Of course, being an all-rounder, he’s barely ever around the actors. He switches positions whenever someone has a problem somewhere, the only things left out being the make-up and clothes because apparently they don’t need “anybody who doesn’t know what they’re doing”.

But still, he gets a lot of insights everywhere and even if it’s more difficult than he’d thought at times, he doesn’t mind running around so much. He meets a lot of different people, workers from every field and learns to appreciate what they’re doing even more.

He can’t wait to tell everyone of his experiences – especially Jeff, one of the Warblers, who has looked like he’d explode from envy when he’d heard about the offer Blaine received. Not that Blaine is a sadist or particularly boastful, he just thinks that sometimes you gonna bloom with what you have.

 

-

 

Blaine hadn’t even considered how difficult actors must be at times. Sure, you hear about them freaking all the time, but he didn’t expect to see it happening in his second week on set.

Actually, he’s hearing it more than anything. There’s shouting coming from the set that is totally not scripted, as far as Blaine is aware, and before he knows it, everyone is rushing away from it, looking very confused.

He stops someone who he knows from the sound crew, asking what’s up and is told that they’re having a break for now because apparently, Sebastian flipped out. It turns out he was the one screaming around after getting his line wrong for the tenth time and started throwing props. Doesn’t sound too good.

He decides to go and find some of his new-found friends to spend the break with so that he wouldn’t stand around awkwardly. Maybe they know what has happened for Sebastian to act like this.

Before he knows it, though, someone stops him just when he’s about to enter the gathering area.

“Blaine, can you go grab a coffee for Sebastian? He’s been cranky all day.”, one of the older crew members – Frank? – tells him. “You’re free right now, right?”

“Uh… yeah.”, Blaine answers slowly. Of course, being an all-rounder makes him play _every_ role of their crew every once in a while, but he hasn’t thought he’d play caterer. Especially not for the star of the show.

Frank tells him Sebastian’s coffee order and sends him off to the next Starbucks, seeing as Sebastian doesn’t like home-made coffee that much.

It takes him about fifteen minutes until he’s back to the set and when doesn’t find Frank, he figures he’ll have to face facts and deliver the coffee himself.

He takes a deep breath and heads to the cast’s trailers, searching for the one with Sebastian’s name on it.

The door’s closed and, much to Blaine’s surprise, so are the curtains but he guesses he should check if anyone is inside anyway. Maybe Sebastian fell asleep. That wouldn’t be good, considering the break is over in half an hour.

He hasn’t even finished knocking when someone shouts “Go away!”

Though his voice sounds different than on TV, Blaine knows it _is_ Sebastian Smythe and for a short moment panic flushes over him. Then he remembers he’s gonna have to pull himself together if he wants to continue working here.

“I bring coffee!”, he shouts back.

For a few seconds nothing happens – leaving Blaine wonder for how long he’d have to stand here until him leaving would be justified – but then the door gets opened and a man appears in front of him.

Of course, he’s seen him before on TV and Tumblr and whatnot and with all the jokes on _Arrow_ it shouldn’t surprise him how young he looks but Blaine can’t help but stare at him, unable to say anything.

Classic case of starstruck.

Sebastian is a lot taller than him, something that’s only underlined by the black sleeved shirt he’s wearing. Blaine can actually see some thin abs underneath it.

“Did Kurt send you?”, Sebastian asks as he grabs the cup out of Blaine’s hand, not even saying hello. There’s no real emotion in his voice that would tell him what the best answer is.

“Uh… no.”

“Hmm…”, Sebastian makes and eyes him. “Did I get a personal assistant?”

“Not that I’m aware of.”, Blaine says quickly. “I’m an all-rounder so one of the others asked me to get you some refreshment.”

“How sweet of them!”, Sebastian says, voice full of irony, and takes a huge sip from his coffee nonetheless.

Blaine feels awkward, standing here on the metal steps leading up to the trailer, nothing better to do than watch Sebastian drink his coffee. That’s kind of stalker-ish, isn’t it? So he decides to go and try for a conversation. “Rough day?”

“None of your business.”, Sebastian answers firmly but when Blaine looks at him he’s greeted by a smile. “Thanks for the coffee, I’m gonna head back inside.”

“I—I didn’t mean to—“

“Listen, killer, it’s alright, okay?”, Sebastian says with a sigh and steps back inside. “If you see Kurt, send him by, yeah? Won’t answer my texts, that bitch.”

Before Blaine can answer anything, the door gets closed right in front of his face. That was a short conversation. And not exactly a pleasant one.

He stares at the door, frowning about what has just happened. Of course, from what he’s heard, Sebastian Smythe may not be the nicest people around but being this repellent is even worse than what he’d imagined.

Tina’s said that Sebastian and this Kurt guy fight a lot over clothing ideas but that doesn’t give Sebastian the right to insult the other, does it? Is he like that to all of the crew members?

He knows that there are actors who think they’re better than anyone just because _their_ face is famous but he’d always figured that just happens with Hollywood actors who’ve been in the business for decades. Not during the very first episodes of the first season from a show. Not from someone who’s in his very first role.

The break’s already half-way over and with what he’s just experienced, Blaine would rather clean the toilets than having to work anywhere near Sebastian. He hopes Tina needs help with the props.

He walks back to that central area they had breakfast at in the morning, his new-found friends standing together and talking.

“Hey, Blaine!”, Sam shouts when he sees him and gives a small wave.

“What’s up? You don’t look too happy.”, Artie remarks when he comes up to them.

“Ahh, nothing, really.”, Blaine answers quickly.

“Oh, I know that look,” Tina says, “that’s the one everyone wears when they bumped into Sebastian for the first time. And then on a day where he just won’t get his lines right? I’m surprised you’re still alive.”

“Yeah, well… He kinda threw me out.”, Blaine responds. Hearing Tina talk like this makes him understand why Frank has sent _him_ instead of someone with _real_ work. It wouldn’t be too bad if Sebastian chewed _his_ head off.

“God, we get it. Smythe’s one type of spoiled princess. Get your head out of your ass and deal with it.”, Santana chimes in.

“You know, I’ve been wondering why you always hang out with us when all you do is being annoyed…”, Sam wonders aloud, earning him a death stare from Santana.

“Anyway, what I was trying to say, Hobbit—Just don’t give a shit. You’re not here to become best buddies with him, are you?”, she continues.

“But he seems to be not up to shooting today… That’s not what I’m here for either.”, Blaine tells her. He’s always had a knack for caring too much, Cooper told him that a thousand times, but he can’t help but wonder what’s up with Sebastian. “Hs any of you seen Kurt?”

“Kurt? Probably back at the costumes. That’s where he’s most of the time.”, Tina shrugs. “Why’d you ask?”

“Sebastian said something about having texted him.”

“True, maybe Kurt’ll be able to knock some sense into him,” Artie says and waves Blaine off to go look for him.

 

The area for costumes turns out to be a huge tent. Blaine remembers to have seen it on his first evening during the tour but they hadn’t been allowed to go inside since there was a danger of “screwing everything up”. As he heads inside now, he’s greeted by what must be hundreds of clothes racks and at least thirty different mannequins.

He can’t help but stop in front of one that wears the _Flash_ suit. He eyes the wine red leather, tracing each seam with a gaze. He can’t fully comprehend that he actually is so close to something that’s probably about to become one of the most iconic pieces of clothing of TV history. He holds out his hand to touch the golden lightning bolt—

“Hey! What are you doing here?”

Surprised, Blaine jerks back his hand and turns around to the sharp voice.

The man behind it wears a stern look on his otherwise very nice face, ice blue eyes narrowed and wandering from Blaine to the suit and back again.

“Uhhh… You’re Kurt, right?”

The other man nods without changing anything about his facial expression.

“I was actually looking for you? Sebastian said he’s texted you a few times— “

“Oh, did he? And then he decides to drag random people into his mess?”

“It wasn’t like he _ordered_ me to get you…,” Blaine says although it pretty much _had_ sounded like that. “Anyway, he seems kinda… down and I think he’d appreciate if--“

“If I go and talk some sense into him. Like always.”, Kurt finishes. “That’s not how he’d put it, of course. First he sends me off and then I got to put him back together, sure…”

Blaine doesn’t know how to react to that, so he just asks, “So… will you go talk to him?”

Kurt sighs. “How bad is it?”

“Filming’s got a break because of him and he locked himself in his trailer.”

“Curtains closed?”, when Blaine nods, Kurt adds, “Fine, I’ll go. Someone has to.”

“Thank you.”, Blaine says as he watches him put away the shirt in his hands.

Kurt just lets out a deep breath and rushes out of the tent.

Blaine keeps standing there for a moment, looking at the piece of clothing Kurt has just put down. It’s a button-down that must be meant for Barry; simple yet good-looking.

From what he’s just seen from Kurt, he doesn’t seem like the nicest guy either. Tina’s description has made it seem like he’s some kind of guardian angel or something who has just been provoked by Sebastian – sure, maybe that’s true if Sebastian really _had_ sent him off, but isn’t that an indicator that something’s wrong?

Blaine sighs. It shouldn’t be his place to wonder about this anyway. Sebastian has asked him to get Kurt, he’s done that, job’s over for now.

He puts the shirt back to where Kurt had placed it and leaves the tent as well.

Apparently the break has been called off, nobody’s standing around all useless anymore but rushing around, carrying things from one place to another. Blaine decides to go back to the set where he’s last worked at and finds Sam, among others, kneeling down to check some cables.

“Need any help?”, he asks, stepping up to him.

“Nah, everything’s set.”, Sam answers, standing up. “You found Kurt?”

“Yepa, he went to talk to Sebastian.”, Blaine tells him. “Where’s everyone?”

“Decided to shoot Rick and Jesse’s scene first until Sebastian has calmed down.”, Sam shrugs.

“That won’t get him into any trouble, will it?”

“Don’t think so. They can’t just fire him. And also, everyone has a bad day once in a while.”

“I guess you’re right.”, Blaine responds. “I’m gonna go check if there’s work for me anywhere.”

Sam nods. “Alright. And hey—don’t take Sebastian’s mood seriously, alright? He’s just like that sometimes.”

“Yeah, sure.”, Blaine answers and turns to leave, searching for something to distract him from his distraught.

 

\--

 

Two days later, Blaine’s still not quite over his encounters with both Sebastian and Kurt. He knows that Sebastian has been up to work later again, at least on the next day, all fit and friendly, so whatever Kurt has done, it has worked wonders.

He tries to avoid seeing them at all, usually he sees Kurt in the mornings, but he decided to chime in later yesterday and did the same this morning. This way he wouldn’t even have to hear his voice. He’s heard Kurt be all pissed at Sebastian on his first day already, but having that directed at yourself is not a pleasant experience.

So, his surprise is big when he has to face him even though he’s done his best to not run into him on that morning.

“Hey, Blaine?”, a soft voice says behind him with a tap on his shoulder. “Do you have a second?”

He turns to see Kurt giving him a shy smile. “Oh, uh… Yeah, sure.”, Blaine replies, pushing away the memory of how their last encounter went. After all, last time Kurt must’ve been pretty annoyed by Sebastian already. Now he looks quite relaxed.

They walk away from the tables and behind one of the trailers near it – Blaine thinks it’s Danielle’s – until Kurt stops and turns on his heels.

“Okay, so I know we don’t know each other but…”, he hands Blaine a small box. “That’s an apology. From Sebastian. And me.”

“What?”

“Open it up, I wanna see your reaction! Sebastian wasn’t quite sure…”

Blaine does as he is told. Inside the box is a bowtie, red with small lightning bolts on it. It’s really cute and Blaine can imagine himself wear it but— “I can’t take this.”

“What? Why not?”

“That must’ve cost a lot.”

“Actually, it’s hand-made.”

“That makes it worse!”, Blaine protests, doing his best to hand back the bowtie despite Kurt’s hands being raised in defense.

“Oh, come on, it’s nothing, I had some leftover fabrics and put them into something pretty. No big deal, I do that a lot.”, Kurt explains, “Also, you deserve it after putting up with Sebastian.”

“That was nothing, really.”, Blaine says quickly.

“Still, you earned it.”

“Why do I have the feeling that it wasn’t Sebastian’s idea?”, Blaine asks, turning the bowtie in his hands to look at it from all sides.

“Well, you know, I said he should probably apologize and he said I should get something, so he definitely _agreed_ with it, which is pretty much the same as Sebastian figuring out he misbehaved on his own.”, Kurt replies, scratching the back of his neck.

“You know him quite well, don’t you?”

At that Kurt just shrugs. “Do you like it?”

“Of course, it’s beautiful!”, Blaine tells him immediately. “Thank you.”

“I figured you could like it because you were wearing one the other day…”, Kurt tells him. “And, you know, the lightning symbolism is kind of cute.”

“It really is.”, Blaine agrees. “Thank you again. And… I’m sorry for the bad day you appear to have had.”

Kurt shakes his head. “I was just pissed at Seb. But there’s also no need to be mad at him, it _was_ a bad day for him for many reasons.”

For a second the idea of asking for details flickers through Blaine’s mind before he can tell himself it’s none of his business and probably not Kurt’s story to share. He decides to just nod. “Okay.”

“Okay, so… sorry again. I’m gonna let you finish your breakfast now.”, Kurt smiles. “I’m glad you like the bowtie.”

“Hey, you could sit with us if you like…?”

“Oh, that’s nice of you—“, Kurt says, “But I need to go over today’s outfits. But I’ll see you around.”

“I’m sure about that.”, Blaine replies, seeing the possibility of that clearly since he’s an all-rounder, after all.

 

\--

 

Blaine is leaning against a fence surrounding the entirety of the set, looking away from it in a moment of peace. Today’s been quite adventurous, with him being asked to do everything at once – at least it had felt like it. Wherever he went, someone wanted him to carry some cable, bring some props from one person to the other just to be send away again, and do things he’s never heard about.

He’s been relieved as soon as they were dismissed, helped put away a few things but as soon as that was done, he didn’t feel like leaving just yet. He doesn’t want to be one of those people who start despising their working place, especially not when it’s something as awesome as a set, so he figured he should take some time to appreciate it.

Opening to the city on one side and to a small street leading up to a forest or park on the other, Blaine faces the latter, taking in the fact that you can switch from business to nature this easily.

“Nice, right?”, he suddenly hears a voice next to him.

Turning his head, he notices arms first, mirroring his position by leaning on top of the fence. Blaine almost jumps out of his skin when he sees it’s _Sebastian_ who joined him.

He just gapes at him, unable to figure out what to answer because 1) it’s Sebastian Smythe and 2) he remembers how their last encounter went. Of course, Kurt had apologized for him, too, but Blaine is still unsure how to handle him, especially seeing as they haven’t met in a while.

“Your name’s Blaine, right?”, Sebastian goes on when he notices Blaine won’t answer. “You seemed pretty alright the other day.”

“The day you flipped on me?”, Blaine says, wanting to bury himself alive at snapping like that. It really isn’t his fault, it’s just that Sebastian doesn’t seem to feel any guilty at all about how he treated Blaine.

“Yeah, about that…”, Sebastian says, giving a small chuckle. “I had kind of a shit day, so don’t mind me.”

“Well, it’s hard not to mind you when you treat strangers like that.”

“I promise, I’m usually a much nicer guy.”, Sebastian tells him. “If you’d hang with me, you’d notice. … Though, if I think about it, don’t ask anyone for my references.”

“Not that nice after all, huh?”

“Well, I’m not the boy next door, but I’m usually not _as_ awful as the other day.”, then he adds, “It was just… something personal.”

“Huh, that sucks. Everything okay?”, even if he isn’t as convinced about Sebastian’s true nature, the caring part of Blaine is always alerted when someone says something like that. He can’t help it.

“Uh, yeah. I just had a fight with my father, the usual.”, Sebastian shrugs. “I hate him.”

“Don’t say that.”, Blaine says carefully, some part in the back of his mind wondering how he got wrapped up into _that_ conversation now.

“Nah, it’s true.”, Sebastian sighs. “Never around but now all of sudden, like a parasite, you know?”

Blaine grimaces at that. He’s barely ever thought of the downside of being famous. How people only show up wanting to bath in your fame and money. “I’m… sorry to hear that.”

“Yeah, well, whatever. I didn’t mean to whine about myself for once.”, Sebastian smirks at him. “What about you, though? What’s up with you staring into the distance like some lovesick girl, killer?”

“Ah, nothing. Just… chilling, I guess.”

“That your thing, huh? Sunsets and all that?”

Blaine shrugs. “Can be nice every once in a while.”

“Well, then, I better go. Kurt’s probably finished with putting together everything by now. At least I hope so…”

“You two are pretty close, aren’t you?”, Blaine asks, putting together everything he has heard so far.

Sebastian grins in response. “Why are you asking? Jealous?”

And much to his own surprise, Blaine lets out a little laughter, an honest one. Sebastian’s humour doesn’t seem to be that difficult and actually, he can see himself get along with the actor. As it seems, he’s only as much of an ass when he’s under stress or something like that. Like any other human would be.

 

\--

 

After that, Blaine seems to run into Sebastian more often than before. May that be because his subconsciously avoid running into him before or because Sebastian starts looking for him – Blaine doesn’t know.

It’s not a bad thing, not when he’s greeted with a bright smile and a cheerful hello every time, wrapped into a conversation a couple of times. They talk about what work is like but sometimes even about more personal things. Blaine knew already that Sebastian was born in Paris (you can’t blame him for checking his Wikipedia page – before he started working on set, of course), but he didn’t know he actually grew up in the US. Sebastian asks him about his hobbies, a very thoughtful question, as it seems, and tells him how he used to be a singer when Blaine mentions playing the piano.

Sometimes, of course, he runs into Kurt, too (and to some extend into the both of them although they don’t seem to hang out as much on set as it sounds like). But after getting along with Sebastian so well and Kurt’s apology, Blaine learns to appreciate him, too. Their chats are pretty work-based, though, not as creative as whatever Sebastian decides to randomly ask about, but they’re friendly.

All in all, Blaine can’t believe half his luck. He’s only been on set for a month or so, and already has made lots of contacts. Sure, he’s an outgoing person, but before he came here, he’d figured nobody would want to do anything with him because of the differences in how they were hired. Now he has not only the other crew members he’s met on his first day to talk to, but has also gathered semi-friends that haven’t been so obvious to be there before. He’s so glad he took that huge step of accepting the work offer.

 

\---

 

A few weeks later, Blaine doesn’t enter the set with the anxious feeling he used to have in the beginning anymore. He’s positive about everything working out, he looks forward to chatting with the friends he’s made and has a smile on his lips as he walks to his usual spot at the breakfast table next to Tina.

“Man, I knew your videos had to be good, but I had _no idea_!”, Sam shouts into his direction as soon as he spots him, not wasting breath on a greeting or anything.

“What?”, Blaine answers while sitting down.

“Oh, come on,” Artie says, “you can’t accept our Facebook requests and expect us not to search for your YouTube account at last.”

Blaine can’t help but blush. “Oh, that. So… what do you think?”

“Are you kidding?”, Artie continues, “The idea of an Asian Batman has never crossed my mind before but now I can’t unsee it! We totally need that in our lives.”

“Besides, it’s the hottest Batman I’ve ever seen. George Clooney is nothing compared to _him_. You wouldn’t like to introduce me to him, would you?”, Tina gives him a small smile and her best bashful look.

“Uh, yeah, sure.”, Blaine says quickly.

“Okay, but other than objectifying your friends, the story was great. I think that was the greatest adaption of Red Robin I have ever seen. Also you sure as hell rock as Dick, man.”, Sam tells him, making the concern that’s slowly built itself in Blaine go smaller again. He’s already seen tons of comments about how good his friends look and all, but barely anything to the practical things behind the scenes.

“Thanks.”, he breathes and gives Sam a smile. “So you’re a fan of Tim, I guess?”

“Who isn’t?”, Sam answers, looking kind of offended by the question. Then he starts a minute-long rant about how Tim is the smartest of the BatBoys and deserves all the love he can get due to his emotional instability.

Of course Blaine agrees with both points, but he’s quick to defend Dick with several arguments so that their discussion lasts throughout the entire breakfast, leaving no place to listen to the others or even think about anything else.

 

\---

 

Blaine’s day (it’s a few days after bickering about the Robins with Sam – that discussion has even carried on when they were done with breakfast, continued with short lists of reasons why their respective Robin is better whenever they ran into each other) has been weirdly quiet. There’s not been much for him to do at any place, so he figured he could stay close to the people he’s quite close to. But just because they don’t need _him_ around, doesn’t mean work isn’t busy for the others. They barely make it by themselves but, as Tina assures him as he watches her and the other propmaster run back and forth, him trying to help would probably only lead into the opposite.

Helping Artie is never a good idea and he wouldn’t even dare disturbing Santana in any way, fearing to be killed off when just approaching her. Sam doesn’t have anything for him either, so he decides to try his luck with Kurt. They’re not exactly friends, but he can’t deny him wanting to work with someone he knows rather than do nothing on his own, can he?

He finds him on his way to the costume’s space, obviously wanting to bring something on set. It’s not much, seeing as it’s just clothes for one person, but the gentleman in Blaine immediately blurts out, “You need a hand?”

“Uh, no, I got it. But thanks, Blaine.”, Kurt tells him with a quick shake of his head. “Oh, I gotta bring those to Sebastian’s trailer. Did you want anything?”

“Nah, not really. Just go ahead.”, Blaine tells him quickly and waves him off with a smile.

Kurt smiles back before he continues rushing into the direction he was headed to before.

Blaine decides to wait for him. Sure, Kurt has said he didn’t need help with _that_ outfit but maybe there’s more to come. You never know.

Kurt only takes a few minutes until he comes back, surprised that Blaine’s still standing there. “Didn’t you say you didn’t want anything?”

 “Yeah, I did. But I’ve got nothing to do, so I was wondering if maybe you’d need some help?”

“Uh, no, that was the last outfit for today. I just have to check if he wears it right later.”, Kurt says. “So, we’re two free men, huh?”

“Guess so. I mean, I’m on call, but for the time being, yeah.”

“Cool. You mind spending the time together until we’re needed?”, Kurt asks. “We can just get some chairs from the tent and relax in the sun.”

“That sounds awesome.”, Blaine tells him, a warm feeling in his chest.

They get the chairs and arrange them at the edge of the meeting area, almost between the trailers so that they’d have the best opportunity for getting as much sun as possible.

It’s kind of awkward at first, sitting together with someone you barely know. It’s not that Blaine feels awkward because it’s _Kurt_. After all, he had planned on hanging out with him in some way, but it’s just that there’s nothing to do to start a conversation or keep them busy so that they wouldn’t feel each other’s presence so much.

He shoots a look over to Kurt who’s leaning back in his seat completely with his eyes closed. He looks incredibly peaceful in that moment, Blaine wouldn’t even have been able to imagine how he looks like that relaxed, seeing as he only ever runs into him on set where he’s busy all the time.

He decides to copy Kurt and leans back, too.

“Where do you come from?”, Kurt asks after a while, making Blaine sit up after almost falling asleep.

“Huh?”

“Well, conversation making.”, Kurt says and shrugs.

“Oh, uh, I’m from Ohio.”, Blaine tells him.

“Seriously? Me too! Where exactly?”

“Westerville.”, Blaine can feel excitement rush up his spine when he things about having someone who might come from the same area has him by his side. “You?”

“Lima.”, Kurt shoots back with a smile. “I’ve never been to Westerville, but it’s not that far away, is it? Heard the name so often…”

Blaine shrugs. “I’ve only heard from Lima, too, so no idea how far. But how cool is that? We could’ve run into each other before!”

“Maybe we did but didn’t recognize each other.”, Kurt says. “Like, you don’t remember every passing stranger’s face, do you?”

“That would be _awesome_.”, Blaine says. “Do you miss it?”

“Not really,” Kurt shakes his head. “I mean, I miss my family, but I’m glad to be out of that homophobic hellhole.”

That’s the first time Blaine’s actually heard that Kurt may not be straight, but he decides to ignore the joy of that coming up to him. They’re co-workers after all, he’s not here to hook up. “That’s awful. I’m thankful my school had a no-bullying-policy.”

“Really? To think there’s been a safe-haven so close all the time…”, Kurt says slowly, “Anyway, now we’re here, working for a great project with a gay man in the lead. That must be a punch in the face for those asses.”

“Right so. If we had something to drink, I’d propose a toast.”

They fall into a light chatter about how their day had been as a whole, if Blaine likes working on set and Kurt tells him how he’s already been Barry’s costumer back when he appeared on _Arrow_ almost a year ago. Blaine can’t help but be astonished by that, because in their conversation he learns that Kurt is only two years older than him. For him, it had been luck to be employed this early, for Kurt it must be because of his obvious talent when it comes to clothing.

They easily lose themselves in talking, only realizing the time passing by the movement of the sun and when Kurt is called to help with the clothes for the new scene to film. He isn’t gone for very long, though, and soon enough they pick up their talk again, enjoying each other’s company.

It had been awkward at first but Blaine really likes talking to Kurt, there’s an understanding in some way, be it of their similar backgrounds, the small age gap or that Blaine knows a thing or two about fashion as well.

“Hey, Blaine! You up for some basketball?”, they hear Sebastian shout after some time.

Blaine hadn’t even seen the gathering happening only a few metres in front of them on the meeting area, both crew and cast members standing around one another. Someone carries a portable basket up to the group.

He shoots a look to Kurt next to him, “You want to?”

“Are you just shooting hoops or playing?”, Kurt calls back.

Sebastian looks at him with a confused expression, even with the distance between them Blaine can see him raise his eyebrow before he exchanges a few words with the people around him. “Play!”, he answers then.

“Hm, then I’ll pass.”, Kurt tells Blaine. “You can go, though, I’m a big boy, I don’t need supervision.”

“I didn’t mean—“

“Yeah, I was just talking nonsense. Go and play, if you want, Blaine.”

Blaine looks at him for a moment, considers staying, but he doesn’t want Kurt to feel like he just doesn’t want to play because of Kurt. He would be perfectly fine with both options but he guesses it could be awkward for _Kurt_ if he suddenly decides not to play.

“Talk to you later!”, Blaine promises with a smile before he jogs off to the others.

There’s already two groups, as far as Blaine can see it’s cast vs crew. There’s only one free spot in the team of the crew which makes him wonder if they really _meant_ him to play. But then he remembers the look Sebastian gave Kurt when he was thinking about playing and thinks that maybe they didn’t want _him_. He feels a twist in his stomach and looks back to Kurt.

“Don’t worry, Kurt _never_ plays,” he hears a voice next to him.

Sebastian, like the other crew members, has switched into something more comfortable and more _him_ as soon as they’ve finished filming. Only that he took off his shirt, probably because of the game.

“He did seem to think about it.”, Blaine says, quickly directing his eyes from Sebastian’s body to his eyes.

“Hm,” Sebastian makes, “maybe it just looked like that to you. So come on, let’s play.”

The game is actually quite fun and soon enough Blaine stops shooting looks at Kurt (who pulled out a magazine after some time) and concentrates on playing completely. Their teams are quite even as Danielle proves to be as much of a good player as Sam. The rest of them is quite mediocre but it’s what makes the whole thing fun. Even Sebastian, who keeps shouting at the basket whenever him throwing the ball doesn’t earn a score, makes the whole thing even funnier. It’s something Blaine could get used to.

“Ohhh, suck it, guys! The crew’s won!”, Tina cheers when one of the make-up artists whose name Blaine doesn’t know scores another point, making them reach 15, which has been their limit.

“We’re gonna make up for it next time.”, Rick says, shooting one of his breath-taking smiles at her. Blaine had thought he was over that by now, but nope.

“Okay, that was fun and all but I gotta find Kurt. He’s supposed to give me a ride.”, Sebastian announces at which Blaine turns to see the other man is gone, having taken the chairs with him. “He’s probably over-checking the outfits for the next ep again… See you!”

Before anyone can even say a word, he already shoots off into the direction of the costumer’s tent.

“I don’t understand their friendship.”, Blaine mutters, more to himself than anyone. He knows that Sebastian and Kurt appear to be at each other’s throats every day, but at the same time something like that happens and you just _see_ how close they are.

“We all should open up a club,” Sam answers him.

 

\--

 

Blaine can’t help but groan when Kurt arrives on set a few days later. It’s not _Kurt_ per se but more the fact that he is on his phone again, and from the volume of his voice, Blaine can only guess it’s Sebastian.

Before anyone at the table can react, he gets up and walks over to Kurt, mouthing “Is that Sebastian?” at him as soon as he arrives at the buffet.

Kurt just nods, going “ _No_ , I don’t know how often I have to tell you—“, before he stops when Blaine motions for him to hand him the phone. Raising an eyebrow, Kurt does as he’s told.

“Hello, Sebastian, this is Blaine.”, he says in the sweetest voice he’s able to produce. Before Sebastian can answer, he continues. “Listen, I’m _very_ sure what you’re talking about is something that shouldn’t be _your_ problem at all, right?”

“It surely is! I told Kurt earlier already—“

“See, you _talked_ to him already. I’m sure Kurt noted what you’ve said and if he thinks it’s important, he’ll come back to it later. After he had breakfast.”, Blaine tells him. “You should probably go get something too, maybe you’re less whiny then. See you later, Seb.”

Without waiting for any further words from the actor, Blaine hangs up and hands Kurt his phone with a smile.

“Did _you_ just hang up on Sebastian?”, Kurt asks, surprise written over his face.

Blaine shrugs. “It’s too early for your shouting, anyway. Come, have breakfast with us.”

He waits for Kurt to fill his bowl with cereal and leads him up to the table he sat at before, telling him to sit down on his seat next to Tina while he goes grab a chair to sit at the head of the table. When he comes back, he finds all of his friends sit there in quite an awkward silence.

Blaine almost frowns at that. Tina had mentioned she’s worked with Kurt earlier, didn’t she? And Sam and Artie had sounded like they knew him, too. So why wouldn’t they be able to pick up a conversation? Even if it’s just about work or anything.

He decides to just start eating and wait for anything to develop.

He’s almost halfway finished with his own bowl when Sam decides to dive into a discussion, asking what the other would think if he died his hair brighter.

Tina quickly tells him not to do it, mentioning how she used to have those blue streaks in her hair, and whenever she looks at pictures of those times she wants to bury herself.

Santana chimes in, much to everyone’s surprise, saying that as long as he doesn’t go all emo with it like Tina did apparently, he should be fine.

“What do you think, Kurt?”, Sam asks, making the other man look up from where he was playing with his cereal. “You should know the best, right? Along with Santana, of course.”, he adds, shooting a look in her direction. Nobody wants to piss off Santana.

“Hmm,” Kurt makes, eyeing him for a moment or two. “Well, you definitely shouldn’t go all the way, but, like, blonde highlights or something would look good.”, he shrugs.

“You could also just colour your fringe and do the Jason Todd thing.”, Blaine proposes, more joking than serious. When Sam actually looks cheerful about that, he quickly adds, “ _No_ , you won’t.”

“You shouldn’t come up with things like that if you don’t want me to do them!”, Sam pouts, “Such a tease.”

“Okay, change of topics before Sam comes up with more ridiculous ideas!”, Blaine calls in the round, waiting for anyone to pick up.

“Well, yeah, okay,” Artie says, lifting his hands as if in defense, “So, the pilot airs next week and I was thinking if y’all want to watch it together? Like a small celebration at my place.”

“Hey, that sounds cool!”, Sam cheers.

When Blaine and Tina agree, too, Artie adds, “Santana, that means you, too. Also you, Kurt, if you want.”

When Blaine looks over to Santana, he sees her glaring into her phone again, probably fully indulged so that she didn’t even hear the question. It would be pointless to wait for her to answer.

Kurt swallows when everyone decides to stare at him instead. “Uh, thanks for the invitation but I think… I’ll pass.”, he says, looking uncomfortable.

Blaine feels a pang in his chest at this, he’d figured hanging out with all of them at the same time would be quite cool.

“Alright.”, Artie nods. “Then I have one less person to feed.”

“Hey, we will all bring something over, of course.”, Tina protests. “Right, boys?” 

“Okay, I’m finished. If you’ll excuse me…”, Kurt says suddenly, picking up his bowl and getting up from his seat.

“Uh, me too.”, Blaine says, collecting his bowl, too. “Wait, I’ll go with you, I need something from the tent anyway.”

Kurt raises an eyebrow at him but doesn’t say anything as they walk away from the table and put away their bowls. Only when they’re only a few feet away from the costumes tent, he turns to Blaine eventually.

“You can’t need anything from the tent and I wouldn’t know about it.”

“Yeah, uh, that was just an excuse to talk to you…”, Blaine says slowly. “You didn’t look too comfortable over there.”

“What? Oh no, it’s fine.”

“Kurt.”

“Fine,” Kurt sighs. “You can’t just expect me to become besties with your friends, alright? I mean, I’d probably get along with them at least a bit, but just because we all like you doesn’t mean we’ll become a big happy family.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh come, I’ve seen how sad you looked when I said I wouldn’t come.”, Kurt sighs. “I just… don’t feel like spending a whole evening with your friends. Yet.”

Blaine’s mouth parts in surprise at the last word.

“Well, having company at breakfast that doesn’t just tell me how to make my job better was quite nice.”, Kurt shrugs. “ _That’s_ definitely something to do more often.”

Finally, Blaine starts smiling at him, feeling relieved that Kurt doesn’t _hate_ the others but just isn’t used to them. Maybe he’ll get to spend some time with them at once.

“Feel free to.”, Blaine tells him. “And-- you should not always pick up when Seb calls you, probably.”

“Yeah, that’s a good tip. But he’s very persistent. I think he just didn’t call back earlier because he was in shock _you_ spoke up against him. He’s convinced he can still wrap you up into that whole personal assistant business.”

“Well, that’s something I’m not sure I’d want to do.”, Blaine says, “Okay, I’ll let you do your thing now. Ignore Sebastian.”

“I’ll try my best.”, Kurt smiles and squeezes his shoulder shortly before turning to enter the tent.

 

\--

 

Blaine’s glad he’s agreed to meet up with Sam and Tina before going over to Artie’s – especially because it means they can go grocery shopping together so they don’t all arrive with the same stuff to eat.

It’s amazing how much he finds out about Sam’s eating habits just by walking through a store with him. Sam points at almost everything and explains if he likes it or hates it, sometimes giving detailed explanations on why exactly. Tina just keeps laughing at him and Blaine feels very confused at some of his opinions.

They arrive at Artie’s place about an hour before the pilot is on, each of them with two bags of sweets or chips under their arms. Obviously, Artie’s apartment is as big as can be, having broad rooms so that he can roll his wheelchair through them without any problems. They have to pull up some spare chairs out of the store room, seeing as Artie only needs limited space to sit on, and even if they are quite uncomfortable at first, they’re sure it’s gonna be alright.

Even Santana shows up shortly before the programme begins, bringing some self-made salad with nachos in it, much to everyone’s surprise. Blaine notes down that Santana is actually a three-dimensional person.

The evening is spent in chatter about the episode, saying what they think is good, and what they hope to make better in the future. Artie is hiding his face in second-hand embarrassment at the Sherlock-like deduction scene of Barry’s, making them all laugh.

They keep hanging around even after the episode is over, just talking about everything and nothing. At some point Sam excuses himself to make a phone call at home, saying his siblings wanted to talk to him after the show’s start.

Blaine sends quick messages out to Kurt and Sebastian (Sebastian had insisted on giving him his number and just saved Kurt’s at the same time without even asking the other), saying the pilot looked really good and that he looks forward to seeing their work more. Neither of them answers until later that night but Blaine is sure it’s because they were hanging out with their own groups.

 

\--

 

He’s met up with the others the next three Saturdays as well, hanging out and watching the show. He’s invited Kurt every time, figuring that since he actually spends most of the mornings with their group at breakfast, having a part in almost every conversation, it could mean he’d agree eventually. For some reason, he declined every time, leaving Blaine to make the decision of watching at least one episode with Kurt, even if it’s without the others.

When he locks his bike in front of the apartment complex he’s standing at, he’s suddenly not sure anymore if this is a good idea. After all, Kurt has never actually agreed to ever meet him outside of work. For all he knows, Kurt could secretly hate him.

But still, he couldn’t help but notice how unsure _Kurt_ seems to be whenever Blaine has invited him to tag along to their weekly Flash-evenings. Kurt had mentioned something about not being friends with anyone from the crew. Blaine’s decided he’d at least try to convince him he could have a friend in Blaine if he wants to.

Of course, he could drive back home again, it’s only half an hour to go by bike. He wouldn’t mind, after all it’s not like it’s awful outside.

But he came here to prove a point. If Kurt really doesn’t want him around, he probably wouldn’t resist sending him away, judging by how Blaine got to know him in the first place.

He gathers his confidence by taking a deep breath and turning to face the entrance. He doesn’t even want to think about explaining to Kurt how he looked up his address in a telephone book. How much of a stalker would that sound like?

Before he overthinks it too much, he jogs up the few steps to the front door and presses the bell labelled as Kurt’s as soon as he’s read his last name. No way out now.

It takes only a few moments until the intel turns on.

“Hello?”, he hears Kurt’s voice, warped by the machine.

“Uh, hi, it’s me – Blaine!”, he quickly says. And then, stupid as he is, he adds, “I brought chips!”

To his relief and surprise, the answer he gets is a buzzing door, inviting him to step inside the building. He climbs up the stairs, unsure where to go, until he sees Kurt stepping up to him on one level.

“Uh, hi. How come you’re here?”, Kurt greets him, a smile on his face that makes Blaine’s anxiety go away. He’s wearing more casual clothes than usually, but still they look like he’s spent hours in front of his wardrobe, deciding on what piece to go with another piece and, in short, he looks breath-taking, like always.

“Actually, uhm, I was thinking we could watch the episode together?”, Blaine says. “I mean—if you want to! If you don’t, I can leave again. My bike’s outside, so I wouldn’t even have to wait for a cab or anything—“

“Blaine.”, Kurt says, crossing his arms and huffing softly. “You’re rambling. Come inside, will you?”

Blaine just nods and follows him inside one of the apartments. It’s basically one big and light room divided in living room and kitchen, there’s a desk on the left and two doors on the same wall, probably leading to the bedroom and bath. Its furniture basically screams ‘Kurt!’, judging by how well everything fits together and how classy it looks.

Right across from the entry is a huge window that takes up half of the wall behind the couch, leading to a balcony with a view onto a big park. All in all, it’s an awesome place to live. Blaine’s kind of jealous.

“Woah, your flat is _awesome_. It’s so Hollywood!”

Kurt chuckles softly. “I was aiming more for New York, but I’ll take it.”

“That could fit, too.”, Blaine admits so that Kurt won’t feel like his interior design is any less perfect than outfit choices (which it isn’t, mind you). “How come you’d go for New York?”

“Well, I—I originally planned to go to New York after graduation, but that didn’t work out and now I’m here.”, Kurt summarizes. “Not that I hate life here, but sometimes I still want to go there. So I figured why not bring a bit of New York here?”

“That’s actually… a cute idea.”, Blaine tells him. “And, hey, you’re young, you still can go to New York if you want, right?”

“Yeah, probably. So, anyway, how do I deserve this pleasant visit?”, Kurt says, walking over to the kitchen counter. “Sit down, please. Do you want anything to drink?”

“Uh, yeah, a water would be nice.”, Blaine answers as he sits down on the edge of the sofa. “Well, like I said, I figured we could watch today’s episode together.”

“You mentioned that already. But don’t you—don’t you usually watch it with the others?”

Blaine shrugs. “Yeah, mostly. But they’re a lot sometimes. Also, we’re kind of friends, right? So we could hang out, too?”

Kurt smiles and comes over to him, handing him a glass of water. “Sure. And Blaine? We _are_ friends, if you like.”

Blaine can’t help but grin at him.

“What about you? Did you plan on definitely coming here?”

Blaine takes a sip of his drink. “Uh, actually, I didn’t even dream of it.”, he says. He tells him about how he got contacted via YouTube, about his videos and how he’d figured to either go to community college or try his luck at some university with a nice photographing programme maybe.

“Photography? You are an all-rounder by all means, huh?”

Blaine chuckles nervously at that, trying to stay calm at the compliment. “But however, when I got asked to work for this, I kinda dropped everything. I mean, working for DC—that’s so-- _huge_.”

“So you’re a comic nerd.”

“Totally.”, Blaine answers, not a bit embarrassed by the fact. “Ever since my brother showed me that comic he’d gotten from a girl who liked him. Got me hooked right away. Nightwing’s still one of my favourites—the whole BatFam is. But Flash’s one of the _greatest_ heroes, too, so I couldn’t possibly let this go by.”

“Who’s Nightwing?”, Kurt asks and if he didn’t look honestly curious, Blaine would’ve gasped in offense. He really doesn’t seem to have a clue.

“He used to be Robin—from Batman? The first one. But then he grew out of it and took up his own mantle. He’s _really_ cool.”, Blaine tells him.

Kurt blinks at him. “There’s more than one Robin?”, he asks slowly.

“Oh my god! You don’t have any idea about comics, do you? Or are you more of a Marvel guy?”, Blaine’s mouth shoots before he can think about it.

“I’m not really into comics.”, Kurt admits. “But I have to say, Chris Evans is-- _wow_.”

“Okay, that’s true. I’ll let that slide.”, Blaine says. “But we need to give you some tutoring in DC.”

“That’s fair, I guess.”, Kurt nods. “If it weren’t for Sebastian, I wouldn’t work here. Wasn’t really my target job.”

“So you knew Sebastian before?”

“Yeah, we were rivals at glee club. And somehow rivals became friends. And when he saw that casting call for Barry, he went with it. Convinced me to go for costumes, seeing as they can always use some help and it’s a good basis—especially when you don’t get into your dream college and didn’t have a plan B.”, Kurt explains.

“Ouch, that sucks. I’m sorry.”

“Ah, you know, it’s not that bad. I like putting together outfits, Vancouver is pretty and I have a friend around. It could be worse.”, Kurt says. “Also, the money is nice.”

“That’s true.”, Blaine agrees. “So, anyway, are we up for the episode?”

“Of course! Let me get a bowl for the chips.”

“I gotta warn you,” Blaine says as he watches Kurt walk back into the kitchen, “I am one of those people who add trivia to everything they watch. Especially when you don’t know anything about _anything_.”

“Hey, I’m sorry but between studying for school, practising for glee and fixing cars at my dad’s garage, there wasn’t much time for reading, like, 200 years of comics.”, Kurt defends himself.

“Who read 200 years of comics?”, Blaine suddenly hears from behind him and turns in his seat.

Sebastian is standing in the doorway leading to the balcony, hands on his (of course he’s not wearing a shirt) naked hips and a smile on his face. “Oh, hello, Blaine. Didn’t know you’d be here.”

“Uh, hello, Sebastian?”, Blaine says and can’t stop his voice from forming a question.

“Blaine read 200 years of comics, as it seems.”, Kurt explains casually like Sebastian showing up on his balcony is a common thing. He must’ve seen the confusion on Blaine’s face when he comes back to the couch and says, “Sebastian lives in the apartment above so he enjoys randomly climbing in via fire stairs because he’s a jerk who doesn’t know anything about privacy.”

“Shut up, you love my random visits.”

“You barely ever leave.”, Kurt says with a raised eyebrow and opens up the bag of chips.

“Your flat is cleaner than mine.”, Sebastian protests. “And don’t say it’s because you clean it, because I’ll have you know, learning scripts is very time-consuming.”

It’s a phrase that made Blaine think of the things he’s heard about Sebastian before, that he’s a self-loving prick who won’t value the crew’s work, but when he sees the grin on his face he knows that’s nothing but a teaser for Kurt.

“Seb, sit down before you hurt yourself because you wear your head in the clouds.”, Kurt says and sits down next to Blaine, legs crossed perfectly underneath himself.

Sebastian follows his direction and sits down on the other side of Kurt, grabbing a few chips from the bowl. “So how come you’re here, killer?”, he asks Blaine.

“I planned to watch the episode with Kurt.”, Blaine says as casually as he can manage. “But I mean, if the two of you planned—“

“Nah, we didn’t plan anything.”, Sebastian says. “I’m just that parasite who keeps coming here, as Kurt likes to put it. So no, of course you’re not interrupting anything.”

“Besides,” Kurt says, shooting Sebastian a look that Blaine can’t see, “if _I_ say he can stay here, he can stay here, right?”

“Yeah, sure.”, Sebastian shrugs.

“Okay, so let’s get going.”, Kurt sighs and reaches for the remote on the table, turning on The CW.

There’s still something else on, seeing as it’s not the time yet, and Sebastian decides to pass by the time by making fun of the people on screen. At some point Blaine finds himself scolding Sebastian to be a bit nicer (“ _Yes_ , even if they can’t hear you.”), but it’s nothing he isn’t used to by Cooper, so it’s not like it makes him hate Sebastian. More the opposite, he starts smiling at him not because he’s _Sebastian Smythe_ but because Blaine feels like he’s getting to know him.

Kurt shushes them both when it’s time for the show to start and they actually keep quiet – Blaine holds back a few comments about background information on the true character of Bette, how she is a villain in the comics like Caitlin is. Sebastian’s not as good at shutting up, as it seems. At one point he goes, “Did you know ‘Sans Souci’ means—“, only for Kurt to answer, “Yes, I know, I took French, _too_.” Blaine just hopes he’ll find out what it means some day.

They watch the show in silence then.

“That’s a good outfit,” Sebastian remarks after a while, nodding at his on-screen persona wearing a blue shirt with a brown cardigan on top.

Blaine can’t help but look at him in surprise. From what he’s heard and seen, he’d expected him to do nothing but brag about how good his own performance is. Maybe _criticise_ how awful whatever clothes Kurt had picked for him look (which, mind you, it doesn’t). But most definitely not compliment Kurt’s choices.

Kurt’s face stays blank mostly but Blaine can see his lips curl up a little as he says, “Yeah, of course it is.”

And then they all direct their attention back onto the screen, making a few comments here and there about whatever plan Team Flash comes up with.

Blaine can’t help but note how comfortable it is to sit here with Kurt and Sebastian, launching on the couch (even if, as it seems, Kurt’s trying to stay perfectly in the middle of the other two although Sebastian is close to putting up his legs onto Kurt’s lap) and sharing a friendly banter about something they _all_ have worked on.

The last time something like that had happened this way has been months ago when he’s posted the last video on his YouTube account, about the costumes they all designed together or Brittany wanting her cat to lead the camera.

All in all, it feels like he has friends.

Of course, he definitely counts Sam, Tina and Artie as his friends. They’re nice and he enjoys talking to them about whatever topic, but he wouldn’t dare voicing his real opinions on the things they’re experts at. He doesn’t know anything about that stuff. But with Kurt and Sebastian, their jobs are something you can very well appreciate without having studied it in perfection. If an outfit Kurt put together looks good, it looks good. If Barry’s crying when facing his father looks convincing, Sebastian has done great work. It’s easy like that.

“That’s definitely the best episode so far.”, Blaine states as Barry _literally runs over water_.

“Chill, killer, it’s only the fifth.”, Sebastian shoots back.

Kurt just huffs in a way where Blaine can’t tell if he agrees with Sebastian or not. He actually does that a lot.

“Anyway, I’m sad they’re not going to keep Bette around. She’s got so much potential.”

“They need to show fatal effects of the whole thing, I guess.”, Kurt says. “That not all powers are cool and all that. So far you only had people who were, like, _obsessed_ with what they can do.”

“Still.”, Blaine insists and does his best pouty face.

Sebastian laughs at him. “Try that face with Greg and the others, maybe they’ll consider your ideas.”

“Bette _was_ cute, though.”, Kurt adds.

“Kurt Hummel, is that heterosexuality I spot there? If yes, you may leave my home.”

“We’re at my place.”

“You get me, that was rhetorical and all.”, Sebastian says. “Anyway, I gotta trust you not to choose gals before pals.”

“I’d always choose a _gal_ over you, you know that, Seb.”

Sebastian’s mouth falls open before he leans forward to face Blaine. “You wouldn’t leave me, Blainers, would you?”

Blaine just chuckles. “Oh look, commercial’s over!”

“Foul play.”, Sebastian protests but stays quiet for most of the rest of the episode. He’s actually been pouting for a while which makes Blaine chuckle.

 

\--

 

That evening of watching _Plastique_ together probably marks the start of a real friendship forming between Blaine and Kurt and Sebastian. They’ve been friendly to each other before, yes, but he hasn’t felt particularly close to them. Now the chats they have on set seem more spontaneous than forced, not much small talk between them in the strong sense but in a light case like you do with, well, friends.

They also meet up for each episode soon enough, the first time Sebastian had invited Blaine to come over again and the next weeks after that he doesn’t even need to hear the words any more but leaves with them after work. Kurt gets more comfortable, too, he’s not being so stuck on sitting like _he’s_ the guest, but at times Blaine would even find him curled into _his_ side with his feet up on Sebastian’s lap.

The evening of the crossover episode airing (filming it had sent Blaine into a state of living that seems like floating – seeing the stars of _Arrow_ in real life was kind of a shock), Sebastian takes a picture of their glasses in front of the TV screen, posting it on Instagram without any further comment.

Blaine hasn’t been able to shake off his habit of stalking the cast’s Instagram accounts yet, especially not when he is featured in one of the posts, so he finds himself scrolling through the comments later that evening. Summarizing the reaction to this simple picture of three glasses – without having tagged any persons – as a ‘shitstorm’ would be a lie. People shouting at each other in the comments, throwing several suggestions of who might hang out with the star of the show, make Blaine laugh to himself. They’d never expect Sebastian Smythe to hang out with crew members.

 

\--

 

“What are you going to do during the break?”, Artie asks during breakfast on their last day on set before Christmas break.

Seeing as it’s December, they put up a tent with several movable heaters on the meeting point so that they wouldn’t freeze off body parts before they even started working.

“Well, I’m definitely going home for Christmas.”, Sam answers to which Tina, Blaine and even Santana agree. “Luckily Winter in Kentucky isn’t as bad as in Canada.”

“Same for Ohio,” Blaine agrees. “I might go to California, too, though, so there’s not much of a winter feeling there.”

“California?”, Tina asks, cocking an eyebrow. “What are you doing in California?”

Blaine shrugs, “Visiting my brother. He works there for some soap opera. And before any of you ask, I don’t know the name, he decided to keep it quiet until he appears on screen.”

“No offense, but your brother is kind of weird,” Artie says, giving him an apologetic smile.

“Yeah, tell me about it.”, Blaine sighs. “What about you, Artie?”

“I’m gonna head back to Missouri, visiting my mum and meeting all the relatives I didn’t even know I had.”, he says with a chuckle. “The usual holiday fun.”

“Yeah, I know that.”, Tina agrees. “I wonder which great-great-great-aunt twice removed is gonna show up on our doorstep this year.”

“ _God_ , stop whining.”, Santana chimes in. “I’m gonna relax during the break and celebrate how I won’t have to listen to any of you for a month. Now _that_ sounds nice.”

“I certainly won’t miss your bitchy comments.”, Tina mutters under her breath and Blaine chuckles in agreement. Not that he hates Santana, her attitude of only ever saying anything when it’s to insult something is just very … difficult.

“Well,” Sam says, “let’s survive this day first before we plan into the future. On my last project, last days meant half-assing everything and being at each other’s throats constantly. I wonder how the actors will put up with that.”

“Let’s hope the excitement for a break does good things,” Blaine tells him, mostly hoping that whatever problems Sebastian has with his family don’t extend to the festive time. That certainly wouldn’t be good.

They finish their breakfast, talking some more about what they’re planning to do and about some presents they’ve prepared and can’t wait for the respective persons to open up. It’s a nice conversation which causes them to be quite cranky when it’s time to start working.

 

-

 

The day went buy surprisingly smoothly. Maybe it’s because Blaine didn’t have to switch positions that often. He got to spend most of his day with the sounds, which is always nice because he gets along with everyone there.

Nobody actually acted the way Sam thought they would, but they were all rather cheerful and pumped with the respective joy of having days off soon. All the workers, both crew and cast, were at their peak during work. Not that they were dead serious, there was enough laughter and material for a gag reel, but they performed well enough.

When Blaine meets up with Kurt and Sebastian at the end of the day, they’re both I quite nice moods. They’re not even throwing as many comments at each other’s heads as usual, but very smiley, looking forward to seeing their families again so soon. He knows that especially for Kurt it’s hard to be that far from his dad because he’s the only one he’s had when growing up.

Seeing as Sebastian is in their group, they don’t go for an emotional good-bye (especially when they’ll see each other again in a month) but spend the evening the same as usually – hanging out in Kurt’s living room and watching whatever they come up with and having a few drinks. Of course, Blaine doesn’t drink too much, since he is not even 21 yet and has to get home by bike.

Kurt is all giggly when they say good-bye in contrast to Sebastian who is just even more flirty than usually, letting his hand touch Blaine’s ass when they hug good-bye. Blaine just lets it slide – that was a thing that would have happened eventually anyway.

For now, he just has to gets to his flat, sleep off the small amount of alcohol he’s had and prepare for a 8-hour-flight to go back to Ohio.

 

\--

 

Blaine sighs when his phone goes off, announcing an incoming call. Holiday season generally means getting a bunch of texts and calls from people you haven’t talked to in years, but it’s worse when you’ve moved away in the past year. Even more worse if you’re involved with a TV show everyone watches, as Blaine learns now.

Sure, Christmas is over by now, but that doesn’t mean he gets any less messages – it feels like a thousand of people want to wish him a belated festive time – in exchange for information about the series.

Blaine picks up his phone, expecting it to be one of the people he has last seen at the beginning of High School (and didn’t even talk to back in the day). Much to his surprise, it’s Kurt’s name that he sees.

“Oh, hi, Kurt!”, he says when he picks up, happy to hear from one of his new friends.

“Hey, Blaine, do you have a nice time at home?”, Kurt answers, probably smiling.

Blaine tells him how he’s glad to have a break for once because even though working on set is fun, it’s kind of stressing as well. Kurt agrees whole-heartedly.

“Are you up for a coffee some time?”, Kurt asks then.

Somehow, Blaine had forgotten that Kurt being at home also means that Kurt is only a bit more than an hour by car away from him. For some reason he’d associated the other crew members only with Vancouver despite knowing better.

“Sounds nice,” Blaine agrees, “How was your holidays?”, he asks, grinning at the image of Kurt wearing a hideous Christmas sweater.

“Yeah, but it’s also been crazy. I need to be around someone normal for once.”, Kurt sighs.

“What about Sebastian?”

Kurt chuckles, “I said _normal_. Also, he’s in Quebec, visiting his sister.” Blaine can imagine him rolling his eyes in a playful manner. “You’re actually the first choice. Feel free to feel blessed.”

Blaine laughs. “Believe me, I do. Where did you have in mind?”

“Um, there’s this great coffee shop in the South of Lima – The Lima Bean?”, Kurt suggests before he quickly adds, “I mean, we can also go somewhere else, it’s quite a distance for you—“

“Nah, I don’t mind spending some time in my car.”, Blaine tells him. “Nothing better than being able to blast ridiculous music at high volume.”

“Oh, tell me, what’s your guilty pleasure music?”

“I’ll tell you when I’m ready to die of embarrassment.”

“Oh, come on, I’ll show you how Seb dances to One Direction!”, Kurt lowers his voice, probably more murmuring to himself than to Blaine, “Although his performance of _Live While We’re Young_ _is_ kind of good.”

Blaine suppresses a laughter at the image popping up in his head (what if Sebastian’s room back at his parents’ is plastered in awkward posters of the band?) and decides to go back to the original topic again. “When would you want to meet up? I’m heading to California on the 3rd, so…”

“Oh, right. Well, I’d like to have a break as soon as possible… How’d you think about the 30th?”

“Sounds good!”, Blaine answers, a cheerful smile on his lips. “What time? Is one pm too early?”

“ _Nothing_ is too early.”, Kurt sighs. “We’re set for that time, I tell you.”

Blaine suppresses a chuckle. “Your family that bad?”

Kurt decides to answer him by throwing himself into a rant. Not that Blaine minds, though, he loves hearing Kurt talk, especially when he’s passionate about something and when Blaine can learn more about him.

Apparently Kurt’s family isn’t _that_ bad, he speaks of them with a soft tone in his voice – like when he talks about Sebastian when he’s not around, an appreciation that is obvious to everyone who listens.

But _what_ he says is that they’re very exhausting, especially his brother’s fiancée, who talks a lot and tries to be in the middle of everything. His step-brother Finn asks a lot of weird questions about work on set (about the girls in the cast, mostly, as it seems). Kurt also mentions a few friends of his brother who seem to have spent the holidays at there’s rather than at home, who have been doing quite the same as Finn, only louder and even more often.

“What about your dad?”, Blaine asks, remembering how Kurt had mentioned them being close.

“Oh, he’s the greatest. When I need some time to breathe, I just go watch some movie with him.”, Kurt answers and Blaine _knows_ he’s shrugging. “But there’s barely any possibility for that at the moment, because someone is always around.”

Blaine sighs, unable to think of something to answer. He’d love to have a bit more of excitement around him for a while. It’s quite boring with only your parents around, even if he’s met up with Mike and Trent, back at home it’s always silent. “Maybe we should switch for a day.”

“Hah, I wish. Your home seems like heaven.”

“You could come over after coffee, if you want to.”, Blaine suggests. “If you wouldn’t mind the drive, I mean.”

“Hm, nice idea. I’ll definitely think about that.”, Kurt promises. “Okay, look, I gotta hang up, I think Puck just spilled something on Finn’s Xbox. See you on Tuesday, yeah?”

“We just can’t get rid of Tuesdays being our days, can we?”

“Doesn’t seem like it. But hey, I don’t mind any day being _our_ day.”

Blaine feels a flush run over his cheeks at that. Actually saying that it’s _their_ day, something they share and look forward to, something that differentiates them from others – it sounds so intimate, like they’re an old-married couple or something.

“Okay, so, I’ll see you! Have a nice evening, Blaine!”

“Yeah, you too.”, he answers quickly before Kurt hangs up, leaving him alone.

Blaine leans back on his bed, his phone still in his hand as he smiles up to the ceiling. He’s looking forward to seeing Kurt again – not just because of how quiet his home is at all times, but because he’s missed him. He’s actually missed everyone from the set, but for some reason the things he’s missed most is not for example discussing comics with Sam or seeing Sebastian in his Flash suit, but the pointed look Kurt would give whoever says something he doesn’t agree with. He guesses it’s just because his subconscious knows that’s something that’s not so far away at this moment.

 

-

 

Blaine hurries out of his car, almost forgetting locking it in the rush he’s in. He’s been supposed to meet with Kurt about half an hour ago, but life never plays your game. He can be glad if Kurt’s even still around, seeing as he probably has better things to do than sit in a coffee shop and wait for someone.

As he enters the shop, he spots Kurt immediately at a table near the middle of the room. He’s hard to miss, his nice clothes stick out in the crowd of people still wearing their jackets – he’s taken his off, placed it over the chair across of his, and takes it away from it when he sees Blaine.

“Oh god, sorry for being late, there was this major traffic jam on the highway…”, Blaine starts to ramble as he walks up to Kurt’s table, ignoring the little smirk the other man gives him. “Guess I should’ve thought about something like that, after all holidays are just over.”

“Well, that gave you more time to listen to your awful music, didn’t it?”, Kurt replies, taking a sip from his coffee. “I would’ve ordered for you, but I figured it would’ve gotten cold before you arrived.”

“Have you been waiting for so long?”, Blaine asks, feeling a pang of guilt in his chest. He should’ve started driving like an hour earlier, after all he didn’t even know the location.

“Nah, just like, half an hour, or so. I was early, though.”, Kurt says. “It was nice to listen to people scream at each other and not asking me to take sides for once.”

“Well, I’m glad you enjoy yourself.”, Blaine tells him, shrugging off his jacket. “I’m gonna go and get a cup. Do you want a new one, too?”

“I’m good.”, Kurt waves him off with a smile.

When Blaine comes back, he sees Kurt tapping a message into his phone in what seems to be a furious rage.

“Everything alright?”, Blaine asks, sitting down.

Kurt looks up shortly and shakes his head. “Yeah, sure, Sebastian’s just a moron and I have to pay for that.”

“Well, that isn’t news.”, Blaine takes a sip of his coffee. “What did he do this time?”

“It’s more about what he didn’t do. Namely, blocking a number.”

Blaine raises an eyebrow. Is Sebastian receiving any messages that may be harmful? Why wouldn’t he block the number then?

Kurt must’ve guessed his thoughts because he quickly says, “No, it’s nothing _too_ bad, it’s just _annoying_. Look, okay, um, my best friend has an ex who’s very… fluid about his sexuality and some time after they broke up, Sebastian started fooling around with him…?”

Blaine nods. That doesn’t sound unlike Sebastian at all.

“Seb would never admit this, but I _think_ he would’ve liked it to be more serious than it was. Which is the only time this was the case. So, he still has kind of a soft spot for him.”, Kurt continues. “Lots of shit happened between them – without Seb ever even telling him about his feelings – and they ended things. And now… ever since the pilot aired, he keeps calling him.”

“So… he’s just in it for the fame?”

“Probably.”, Kurt answers with a serious nod. “He’s very determined to get famous himself.”

“And Sebastian didn’t delete his number?”

“Like I said, soft spot. But the thing is, he doesn’t even pick up. He just keeps asking me what he should do.”, Kurt chuckles softly. “He’s like a teenager, really.”

“Hey, I’ve heard I’m pretty good at sending people away via phone, maybe I should try my luck.”, Blaine suggests, smiling at the laugh he gets in response. “No but seriously, as douchey as this dude sounds, _does_ Sebastian even want to turn him away?”

“He seems to be unsure. I hope he does, though…”, Kurt says, “Wow, I can’t believe he isn’t even around and we still only talk about him.”

“Hey, you care about him.”

“Yeah, you too. Which is weird because it took me a year to get _used_ to him alone. You know him for three months and are about as close to him as I am.”

“I definitely wouldn’t say _that_.”, Blaine answers. “Okay, anyways, apart from the loud house, how was your time at home?”

Kurt tells him about the presents he’s gotten, how his brother had gotten him a new sleeping mask and salts for a relaxing bath, about the playbill his brother’s fiancée (who turns out to be said best friend from earlier) got him in New York. He even shows him the gloves he’s gotten from his dad which made him laugh a lot. They’re black with skeleton fingers on them, the explanation being how his father got obsessed with Storage Wars where one of those guys has the same gloves and he’d figured Kurt could like them, too.

Blaine tells him in return how his parents have given him a new acoustic guitar. His grandparents didn’t really know what to get him so he got some money from them, and he grins as he tells Kurt it’ll definitely be good for his comic collection. At that Kurt rolls his eyes overdramatically.

“So, what are you gonna do for New Year’s?”, Kurt asks later.

Blaine shrugs, “Probably hang with some friends, I’m not sure, though. What about you?”

“I’m debating whether to spend the night at home or go out with Finn and Rachel.”, Kurt says, tapping the lid of his coffee. “The copy of the ball drop sounds cool, but I don’t know if I want to be surrounded by thousands of couples with their tongues down their throats.”

“Well, you could always spend time with me,” Blaine says.

Kurt laughs at that which makes Blaine frown. “Do you realize how that sounds in connection do what I just said? Like you asked me out.”

“And that would be so funny? Wow, I’m hurt.”, Blaine says it like he’s joking but actually, it _did_ hurt. A bit. Not that he’s actually considered going out with Kurt, but that’s never a reaction someone wants to hear.

“No, not because of you.”, Kurt quickly assures him, “Just the _way_ you would’ve asked.”

Blaine raises an eyebrow, giving him a smirk. “What would a man have to do to get you to go on a date with him, then?”

“Well, let me see.”, Kurt considers it for the moment. “The first guy I went out with had the advantage of being the only other gay guy I knew.”

“There go my chances.”, Blaine jokes.

“The second had this _great_ British accent.”, Kurt continues.

“I couldn’t pull that off, probably.”

“And the last one texted me, like, _all the time_.”

“Hey, that I can do.”, Blaine grins before he realizes something. “Wait. You only dated three people?”

“Yeah, well, with two of them I only went out once.”

“Seriously?”, Blaine can’t even comprehend that news. He’d have figured both guys and girls would basically run after Kurt, begging him to go out with them. He’s a good-looking man, knows how to dress himself to point that out, he’s fun to be around – there’s nothing not to like.

“Um… yeah?”, Kurt goes, looking completely oblivious as to why Blaine is so surprised.

“Wow, how?”, Blaine makes, “Did you turn them all down or…?”

Kurt chuckles, “No, definitely not. There just wasn’t the interest.”

“How.”, Blaine says, not even able to stress it like a question.

Kurt just stares at him. “Okay… Change of topic. I’d like to spend New Year’s Eve with you. It’s not New York but it will probably be nice to not be the fifth wheel.”

“Hey, cool! We can hang out at my place, if you want.”

“Sounds like an idea.”

 

-

 

On the early evening of the 31st, Blaine is not completely freaking out, thank you very much. It’s completely normal to clean up the entire house for the fifth time and to overthink his outfit once again. He just doesn’t want Kurt to feel uncomfortable or criticise his clothes. If there’s one thing he never wants to experience, it’s that.

He’s quite surprised when his phone goes off. The feeling disappears when he sees Sebastian’s name on the caller ID.

“Hello, Sebastian.”, he sighs into the phone after picking up.

“Hi, killer. You alright?”, Sebastian greets him. “Kurt said something about breaking you yesterday. And not even during sex, which is quite an interesting thing.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you know, when an orgasm is really—“

“I did _not_ mean the sex thing, Seb. What do you mean ‘he broke me’?”

“Uh, he said you talked about how many people he’s dated and couldn’t comprehend how small the number was?”, Sebastian explains. “I mean, it’s not that surprising.”

“Uh, yes, it _is_? Have you looked at Kurt?”

“ _Yes_. But I also know what he _used_ to look like, don’t forget that.”, Sebastian reminds him. “If nothing changed lately, the number of people he slept with is even smaller.”

“I’m not sure if I wanted to know that.”, Blaine mumbles.

“Anyway, do you have a thing for Kurt or why were you so obsessed with that fact?”

“I wasn’t even remembering that until you called.”, Blaine lies. He won’t admit he’s been wondering half the night how nobody had found interest in Kurt.

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.”, Sebastian answers and Blaine can see his smirk. “So what have you planned for tonight? Dinner, a movie, fireworks?”

“Well.” That _is_ what Blaine had thought they’re gonna do, but it’s definitely not meant in the way Sebastian is thinking of. “Don’t be stupid, we do that stuff all the time.”

Sebastian chuckles. “A) There are never fireworks and B) you don’t want to get in my pants, do you? Although I totally don’t understand _that_ , I’m _hot_.”

“I don’t want into Kurt’s pants!”, Blaine insists.

“Keep telling yourself that.”, Sebastian repeats. “But be warned, Kurt is a relationship guy. Won’t get into his pants without feelings. Me excluded.”

“Wait, _what_? You had sex with Kurt?”

“Uh, look, I really need to go, Blaine!”, Sebastian says quickly, not even saying goodbye before he hangs up.

Blaine just stares at his phone, unable to believe that 1) Sebastian hung up on him in the middle of a conversation and 2) that _Sebastian and Kurt have had sex_.

He probably shouldn’t have been that surprised by that fact, he knows how Sebastian is. But he’d thought Kurt was _immune_ against him. This is such a turn of events.

Not that he’s particularly interested in Kurt’s sex life. Or love life. In Sebastian’s neither. But he can’t be expected to keep his cool when something like that is thrown at him. Especially if Sebastian acts like nobody must ever know.

Asking Kurt is off the table, considering he’s probably the reason why nobody must ever know. Sebastian isn’t the kind of person who keeps quiet about their sexual achievements. Also, what would he even say? _Hello, I heard you had sex with Sebastian, what’s up with that?_ That kind of makes him sound like he’s jealous.

Which he isn’t. Why would he be?

The ringing of the bell snaps him out of his thoughts. Jumping up from his seat, he looks around in his room, checking if everything looks neat. He’s spent the whole day cleaning so of course it is.

He scoots down the stairs and opens the door for Kurt. He’s greeted by being pulled into a strong embrace.

“ _God_ , thank you for letting me be here.”, Kurt sighs as he steps back, giving Blaine a thankful smile.

“Uh, you’re welcome.”, Blaine answers, stepping aside so Kurt can enter. “Everything alright?”

“I’ve been flooded by what my family wants to change about themselves in the next year. I already know all of those resolutions will be gone by the end of the week. And, of course, I had to listen to what a lovely evening Rachel has planned.”

“Did you tell her about your lovely evening plans?”

“Yeah, well, I _would have_ if she even took a second to breathe.”, Kurt nods. He follows Blaine into the living room. “Do you have any resolutions? I’m positive you’ll be better at actually doing them.”

Blaine shrugs, “I suppose I could work out more, at the moment biking to work and back is the only thing I’m actually doing.”

“Well, you could always go to gym with Seb. He loves when there’s someone watching him.”, Kurt says with a small laughter. “Speaking of which, my only plan is not to kill him.”

“Oh dear, I’m not sure if you can do that.”

“I know right?”, Kurt grins. “Okay, so what are we gonna do?”

“About Sebastian? I have a few plans.”

Kurt blinks at him before breaking into another laughing fit. “I meant tonight.”

“I knew that!”, Blaine protests. “I was thinking we could make some spaghetti with self-made tomato sauce. It’s no typical New Year’s food, but it’s healthy, so like…”

“Awesome,” Kurt agrees. “Okay, so let’s get going, I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast.”

They walk over into the kitchen and Blaine catches Kurt stare at it in awe. It’s no surprise, even people who don’t enjoy cooking are impressed by how big and open it is, decorated with different machines for all kinds of cooking routines.

“My mum’s a cook,” Blaine explains.

“And you never happened to mention that?”, Kurt shrieks, eyes still wandering around to take everything in.

Blaine can’t help but smile at the cute reaction. “Shall we start?”

Before he knows it, he’s ordered to cut the tomatoes and carrots they need while Kurt is looking into the oven, figuring out what it can do and what the best option is to sear the vegetables. He finds the way around the kitchen by himself, looking for the shelves of seasonings before asking Blaine if they’ll need anything other than salt and pepper (and then going on to suggest that he’d like to experiment with the things he’s never seen before if Blaine is up to it).

It’s fun to watch Kurt this enthusiastic about something other than what he earns his money with. Of course, Blaine knows Kurt has loved fashion way before pursuing a future in it, but it’s still not the same as with something totally unrelated. Kurt is concentrated, but still relaxed, a smile on his lips as he tells Blaine what to do.

Blaine decides he should probably come over and cook together with Kurt when they’re back in Vancouver, seeing as it’s fun and better than fast food anyways.

About an hour later they’re seated at the dining table, eating the meal that Kurt has refined with tastes that Blaine didn’t even know existed. When he tells him how wonderful it is, Kurt acts like it’s not a big deal.

“You know, you never told me what a guy would have to do to get a date with you.”, Blaine says when his plate is half empty.

“Oh, you know,” Kurt answers, “I’m easy, just sing a cheesy song for me in front of a crowd and we’re game.”

“Oh _wow_ , that’s really easy.”, Blaine agrees and laughs. “Everybody can sing.”

“Please tell me you’re not serious.”

“No, really, everybody can sing, some are just better.”

Kurt snorts, “You should hear my grandfather sing. He’ll prove you wrong.”

They continue their chat over dinner, talking about everything and nothing until they’re finished. When they put away their plates, Blaine suggests they could watch a movie. Kurt seems to like the idea and announces that he’s going to choose what they watch, only leaving Blaine to lead the way to his room.

 

-

 

They’re leaning over the parapet of Blaine’s balcony, looking into the sky and waiting for the fireworks to get off. They’d finished watching Moulin Rouge just in time to not miss the year’s change and wrapped themselves up into blankets so they wouldn’t freeze outside.

It’s nice to just wait for midnight in comfortable silence. The past years, he’s always been at a party from one of his friends, screaming a countdown at each other with too much alcohol in their systems. He’s never felt bad at the parties, but he doesn’t need noise around him all the time.

He sees how Kurt closes his eyes and listens to the silence, probably enjoying it as well. From what Blaine’s heard, he really could use it for a change.

They’ve stood there for a few minutes when they hear how from the houses surrounding Blaine’s, people start counting down the seconds.

“Ten! … Nine!”

“Thanks again for having me here,” Kurt says and Blaine guesses he smiles although he can’t see it in the darkness.

“Eight! … Seven! … Six!”

“You let me crash at your place all the time.”, Blaine answers.

“Five! … Four!”

“Today’s not a random day.”

“Three!”

“You’re welcome.”

“Two! … One!”

“Happy New Year,” Kurt says just when the first rocket goes into the air.

“Happy New Year, Kurt.”, Blaine replies with a smile, feeling Kurt’s hand squeeze his arm shortly. A small part of his mind is a bit disappointed when Kurt takes it away again to cross his arms in front of his chest, looking up into the sky.

 

\--

 

Being back on set is both nice and awful.

For one, he is glad he’s not surrounded by Cooper anymore who kept telling him how great everyone thinks he is. Blaine wishes he could’ve told all his friends to ask his brother about whatever Soap Opera he’s on instead of how working on _The Flash_ is. Maybe then he would’ve shut up for once. Not that he hates Cooper, he’s just a lot sometimes. Especially when he tries to tell _Blaine_ how he should do his job.

Awful is that he has to get up at early times again. He wouldn’t want to swap his work for anything in the world and he still looks forward to doing it, but he almost is used to everything by now which makes the normal work mentality kick in.

He’s glad to see his friends again and hear what they’ve all gotten for Christmas and what they’ve done in the holidays. They barely react when Sebastian comes to their table.

“Hello, Blaine. Hello, Blaine’s friends.”, he says with a charmful smile. “Had a nice break?” When Sam takes a deep breath to answer, naïve as he is, Sebastian simply raises a hand to make him stop. “I’m sure that’s lovely, but unfortunately I am here for a severe matter.”

Blaine raises an eyebrow. “What’s up?”

“I have a very important question and all of you guys must answer it in all honesty, alright?”, Sebastian continues and waits for them to nod, curiosity written on everyone’s face. “Okay, so. …Who do you think is most attractive of the cast?”

Blaine snorts into his food while the rest just stares at Sebastian is disbelief. “He’s probably actually for real, guys.”, he tells them.

“Of course I am! Do you think I’d be here if I weren’t?”, Sebastian says, “So?”

“Candice, hands down.”, Santana replies, a smirk on her lips as if challenging Sebastian.

“Same.”, Sam says with a serious nod.

Sebastian narrows his eyes at that, looking over to Tina.

“Uh… Carlos?”

“I’m gonna go with Danielle.”, Artie says, raising a hand.

Blaine almost laughs at the disappointment on Sebastian’s face at that. “Wow. So Blaine’s the only one who’d be for me?”

“Well, actually—“

Sebastian’s eyes wander over to him; mouth open in surprise. “Seriously? Who?”

“Um, you have to admit that Rick—“

“ _Rick_?”, Sebastian repeats, “You choose _Rick_ over me? Wow.”

“Oh, come on.”, Blaine grins. “You’d totally win if you narrowed it down to the queer guys.”

“As far as I’m aware that would only mean Andy and me.”

“See? You win!”

“If you say I win over Rick I’ll kiss you,” Sebastian offers.

Blaine laughs. “No.”

“I’ll blow you?”

“Sebastian!”, Blaine exclaims, perfectly aware that there are other people seated at the table. Not that _that_ ’s the reason why he would decline.

“You’re a buzzkill, Blaine Anderson.”, Sebastian only says before turning on his heels and stomping away in quite a childish performance.

“Now _that_ was an interesting conversation.”, Santana says with a grin. “So you’re fuck buddies or what?”

“No, we’re not!”, Blaine says as he feels a blush come up his cheeks. “He’s just... stupid.”

“Uh-huh.”, Santana makes.

Tina finally starts giggling, sounding like she’s tried to hold it in the whole time. When Sam and Artie join her, Blaine feels a flush of relief and starts laughing, as well. Sebastian _is_ kind of awful sometimes, but it’s not like he’s not used to it.

 

\--

 

A few weeks later, Sebastian has invited Blaine over to play some video game with him, which probably means he has something to brag about that Kurt wouldn’t find any interest in. Blaine doesn’t really mind it, he likes hanging out with Sebastian as much as with Kurt even if he’s that weird. Having to put up with his madness is just something you have to accept. Also, they haven’t had a chance to hang out with just each other in a while, so it’s convenient.

It turns out that Sebastian really has something to brag about – he’s gotten himself the first Episode of _Life is Strange_ which only came out a few days ago. Blaine has only heard about it before and hasn’t been too hyped about it (yet) but, _hey_ , a new game is a new game so it’s cool enough.

Sebastian lets Blaine play along to the instruction he gives him, obviously enjoying _that_ more than playing the game himself. He just loves bossing people around.

They don’t concentrate entirely but chat about who-knows-what while Blaine tries to lead the main character through her adventure. After a while Sebastian starts complaining about how annoyed he is with Valentine’s Day already. There’s commercials everywhere, apparently, something that Blaine isn’t even aware of because he’s kept himself busy the past few weeks. Maybe he’s avoiding the holiday.

“Why don’t you ask out Kurt?”, Sebastian says when Blaine tells him he didn’t even realize it’s the 5th February already, staring at his nails.

“What?”

“Oh, come on, killer.”, Sebastian sits up to face him. “I know you want into his pants, remember? I can imagine the only thing stopping you is because you want in mine, too, but I swear, Kurt wouldn’t mind if we went for it before you two started dating.”

“I don’t want to have sex with either of you!”, Blaine protests.

“Okay, I know, I’ll admit I _know_ you don’t want into _my_ pants. Which really leaves me heartbroken.”, Sebastian says, touching his chest. “But! You definitely have a crush on Kurt!”

“I don’t—“

“Blaine.”, Sebastian reaches over to touch his knee shortly. “You’ve never stopped looking at him like he’s the greatest person you’ve ever seen. You don’t even look that way at any cast member any more. … Maybe you haven’t realised it, but come on, be true to yourself.”

Blaine looks down on the floor, lips pressed together. He’s tried to actually ignore that, hoping the flutter in his chest that he has whenever Kurt does something adorable would go away eventually. Having it thrown at him like he’s _so_ obvious makes him feel nothing but horror for a short moment.

“Even _if_ I did have a crush on him, he doesn’t feel the same.”, Blaine says, saying it both to himself and to Sebastian. Not only is Kurt focussed on his career more than anyone else probably, he’s surrounded by people who look way more attractive than Blaine, no matter where. He could easily get someone more appropriate for himself.

Blaine almost jumps out of his skin when Sebastian let’s out a loud groan as he leans back against the back of the couch, pressing his palms into his eyes. “I can’t believe this.”

“What?”

“That I have to play matchmaker! I thought if anything, I would be the one who breaks up couples!”

Blaine blinks at him.

“God, _man_! Kurt likes you, too!”               

“What? Why would you say that?”

“Because he told me!”

“What?”, Blaine repeats, barely managing not to get out of his seat to jump at him.

“He’s gonna kill me for saying this, but he mentioned how sad he’d been when you didn’t kiss him at New Year’s!”, Sebastian almost shouts at him.

“But… no,” Blaine protests, “He didn’t even—“

“You’re both idiots.”, Sebastian shakes his head. “Just ask him out, he’ll say yes, I promise.”

“Seb, I don’t think—“

“Look, if you don’t ask him out, I’ll lock you both together and won’t open the door until you made out.”, Sebastian tells him. “Kurt won’t ask you out, he has some kind of complex about that after High School, I don’t know. So if _you_ don’t do it, it won’t happen at all. Plus, it won’t. End. Badly.”

“You’re serious.”, Blaine summarizes.

“Yes! I am!”, Sebastian groans again. “Please, ask him out! I can’t stand that silent pining anymore!”

Blaine looks at him for a moment before doing a bold move. Sebastian wouldn’t set him up if he didn’t think what he’s saying is the truth. Blaine knows better than to assume that he would play a trick on _Kurt_ because, _well_ , Sebastian seems quite fond of his balls. So, Kurt _must_ have said something like that. Blaine may actually have a chance, even if what Kurt had said has been a month ago.

“Seb, do you know who of the cast members can sing?”

If Sebastian is surprised by the apparent sudden change of topics, he does his best to hide it. “Uh, Jesse, of course, Carlos, Rick, Patrick. If that karaoke is any proof, definitely _not_ Danielle… If we’re talking _Arrow_ , too: Colton is amazing! Actually, the whole cast except Stephen maybe.”

“Okay, that’s good.”, Blaine says, pulling out his phone to text Sam. “I need you to ask them a favour for me.”

 

\--

 

Blaine finds himself feel more nervous than ever before. Not even when he performed with the Warblers, being their lead singer and all. The judges back then barely did anything to him. Maybe because he wouldn’t have made only a fool out of himself back then in contrast to now.

He is certain that he knows the text well enough and since _he_ won’t have to dance as much as the others, he can’t fall and break any of his bones, but there’s still that possibility of being rejected, so he isn’t feeling too well.

He looks back to where both the cast and crew members have gathered (it’s a lot – the show’s producers really have a knack for people who can sing) and receives thumbs ups and smiles from Sam, Tina and Danielle.

“Oh, there they come!”, Candice hushes, causing Blaine to turn around.

He watches as Sebastian leads Kurt to them, a scarf covering his eyes. Kurt doesn’t look too happy, which is understandable considering it’s _Sebastian_ who basically kidnaps him. Then again, he wouldn’t have let anyone cover his eyes but Seb.

“Okay, alright, here we are.”, Sebastian announces, helping Kurt take off the scarf before stepping over to the others.

“What--?”, Kurt breathes, staring at the group. Then his eyes wander to Blaine, who stands in moderate distance to them. “What’s going on?”

“Um, don’t freak out, okay?”, Blaine says carefully, “Just… watch, yeah?”

Kurt raises an eyebrow and watches him step back a bit. When they start singing, his mouth falls open.

Seeing him stand there like that makes Blaine even more anxious as first, but as always, music is the key for him. He knows he’s good at singing _Teenage Dream_ , and the others are doing a good job, too. Before he knows it, he’s actually caught in a performance, pointing at Kurt at the right times and he feels like he’s been reborn in a span of seconds when he sees the other man start _smiling_. As it seems, his chances really aren’t that bad.

They’re finished before he knows it and he’s standing only a few inches from Kurt, panting hard.

“Go for it!”, someone from the group shouts when he tries to find the right words and Blaine stutters, albeit with a smile, “So, what do you say? Will you be my valentine?”

“Are you kidding?”, Kurt says, making Blaine regret his whole life for a moment. “Yes, of course!”, he says then, throwing his arms around Blaine’s shoulders.

“Oh, thank god, for a second I was planning to move to the Philippines.”, Blaine breathes into his neck.

“No need to.”, Sebastian says loudly, clapping a hand onto either of their backs. Then he shouts, “Group hug!”

As all the people he’s met in the past six months come closer, everyone wrapping their arms around another person’s body, Blaine laughs out loud. If anything that has happened in that time, he may not only be about to have a boyfriend but also a whole bunch of good friends, too. Setting up a YouTube account all those years ago, when he’d feared that may be the most embarrassing mistake of his life, was the best decision he could ever have made.

**Author's Note:**

> reblog it [here on tumblr](http://aro-smythe.tumblr.com/tagged/own)


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